Thursday, November 14, 2013

@jenbrea is taking over the TED Fellows Twitter account next week (https://twitter.com/TEDFellow). It's followed by about 12,000 people passionate about TED. I'd love to use it as a chance to highlight links to media (video, photo, text) not just about ME, but all the issues surrounding and the concepts and trends that cut across communities.

- Medicine v. science- Forced psychiatric institutionalization (historic and contemporary)- Famous or historical figures with ME- Anything nerdy (but written up in popular science) about the possible causes of ME: viruses and methods to detect them, environment illness, genetics, Epidemic of Absence- Personal stories, blogs- Art or music- Favorite quotes from essays or books you have read – someone recently mentioned Susan Sontag and Virginia Woolf – that you think might apply to the story of ME

The list goes on...

Hints:

Think about what might appeal to a general audience and not require a lot of background knowledge to interpret. So for example, I will not be tweeting the ICC and I will probably not be tweeting any medical studies.

Try to abstract from the specifics of our disease and think about the broader themes or analogies that might help the uninitiated better understand the situation this patient community finds itself it in.

TEN DAYS TO GO!KICK OFF OUR LAST WEEK WITH A THUNDERCLAP

If you've never heard of Thunderclap, it is a tool that allows charities or causes to amplify a specific message by organizing hundreds of people to share that message with their social networks at a single, common moment.

Like Kickstarter, Thunderclap is all or nothing. We need at least 500 people to sign up to share our message on Twitter or Facebook before Tuesday, November 19th, at 1pm ET., or the message won't be sent.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

We are thrilled to announce that Canary in a Coal Mine has been selected as one of five finalists in the Paley DocPitch Competition.

What does this mean? On November 16th, we'll get a chance to pitch our film to a committee of executives from USA, A&E, MTV, History, PBS (POV), and an audience of professionals in film and television, gathered at The Paley Center for Media.

The winner receives $5,000 for their film as well as mentorship. While we are a long way from having a finished film to sell, it's a wonderful opportunity to bring the project before a group of filmmakers and industry experts, get early feedback, and build relationships.

Thank you, everyone, for all of the energy and momentum you have given this film. We have been so moved by your emails, messages, and comments. With your help, in just ten days, we have raised over $100,000 for the production of Canary in a Coal Mine.

We could not have done it without you. All the watching, giving, spreading and sharing of http://j.mp/canarykickstarter made this possible. We are deeply touched by your generosity, your enthusiasm and the trust you have put in us!

We have 18 more days to reach our $200,000 goal. Over the next two weeks we'll be releasing short video clips, all about a minute or so in length. The first is an 80-second trailer and we'd like to show it to you, first: http://j.mp/canaryB.

If it touches you, please share it with a handful of friends and loved ones. Every new viewer helps to elevate us from “invisibility” and every new donor (even $1!) helps us get closer to producing the full film. With your help, the Kickstarter campaign itself can be a vehicle for raising awareness about ME.